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they came from the east,
they brought horses to our cultivated lands,
the gave power to our have-nots.
they took our culture,
they brought new customs to our burial grounds,
broadened the bases of our history.
they came from the east,
replaced our despots with their caliphates,
conquered but tolerated our gods.
they brought us wisdom,
they brought a zero to our tired calculations,
they guarded knowledge we'd forgotten.
they came from the east. byzantium (a city of moths)
crumbled into a dust that plunged europe into the dark.
constantinople (a metropolis of candles)
brought light to our books as europe forgot how to read.
let's make this stage our rubicon,
let's cast a die, let's let history decide.
and as i cross it, i chase aeneas back to his ships,
i bring the rhythm back to the hips.
and as rome is consumed,
as i fiddle this whisper tune on these strings,
friends, i have no need of your ears.
so let's make this stage our rubicon,
our frozen rhine, our yippie picket line
and i caesar hoffman! and as i cross it,
i bring the central asian steppe sweeping into the wilds of europe.
i make my bedroom rome, i make this city my home,
i am remus come from the dead,
come to tell you all to sack this city tonight,
let's sack this city tonight,
because i always heard better in the dark.
thus immersed in barbarous longing

This is one of the most amazing songs ever. Frank went to eton. His dad taught there I believe, which meant he got in on a scholarship.
Right, down to some of the meaning behind the lyrics:
It is basically about the rise and fall of civilisations, and also of knowledge and beliefs throughout history. The first 13 or so lines are about various civilisations in history conquering other ones, and what they bring etc. eg ‘they brought a zero to our tired calculations’ refers to, I believe, the introduction into the western world of an Indian numerical system that saw zero as a separate number, occupying a position between 1 and -1, in the 12th century. Also for example ‘replaced our despots with their caliphates’ refers to the replacement of political systems under the ottoman expansion.
The next section refers to the libraries in Constantinople keeping preserved ancient roman and greek books during the dark ages.
The third section gets more obscure. The reference to rubicon is quite obvious – the river served as a point of no return – Caesar crossing it was taken as an act of war. Then there are more ancient history references – aeneas led (according to virgil’s aeneid), troops away from the fallen troy and set up rome. ‘as rome is consumed’ – nero etc. ‘frozen rhine’ is a reference to the crossing of the rhine by barbarians in the 5th century, at the fall of the roman empire (you here see a strong lineage occurring in the song… end of greek empire, beginning of roman, end of roman – ie. Rise and fall of empires). Now we come up to modern history – yippie picket line – along with rubicon and the rhine another symbolic point of no return. ‘caesar hoffman’ is a reference to Caesar, and abbie Hoffman (60s yippie activist). Here frank is creating himself on his ‘stage’, which he has made his point of no return, as some kind of activist hero leader – a mixture of a great army leader, and great activist.
I think this element of the song works nicely with other songs on ‘a song to ruin’ which question the role of singers taking a political stance and telling the masses what to do (ie. In ‘I am the party’ – “i implore you to ignore every word i say. and if my status as a figure on a stage implies authority…”)

And then the last part of the song refers to the end of this civilisation, which frank himself, in his guise as ‘caesar hoffman’, on his stage that he has made his ‘rubicon’ or his bedroom which he has made rome, will implement – ‘let’s sack this city tonight’.

And then it is revealed that all along, the rise and fall of civilisations, religion, knowledge, philosophy, was all for the lulz – ‘thus immersed in barbarous lolling’